ING Vysya Life Insurance, which has been a dominant player in the South, has now turned its focus on North and West India.

Amit Gupta, Director - Marketing & Communication, ING Vysya Life Insurance, said, “Delhi is an important market for us. We are among the top five players in the South and want to replicate the same success in the North and West. We want to create buzz around the brand and consolidate the brand in Tier I and II cities.”

“We are now focusing on being among the top three players in the South. To support our growth plans we have increased our advertising and marketing spend by 30 per cent this year, as compared to Rs 35 crore in 2007. 70 per cent of our advertising and marketing spend is on ATL activities, while the remaining 30 per cent is spent on BTL activities. Our overall business increased by 50 per cent in 2007-08,” Gupta added.

He further said, “We are conducting a ‘petrol activity’ along with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) in eight cities involving 160 petrol pumps. We have tied up with Radio Mirchi for radio partnership. Our ING Advisor will be present at the designated petrol pumps, where while the consumers get a free vehicle check-up done, the ING Advisor will explain to the consumers how they could opt for a career as an ING Advisor.”

The candidate will need to go through a rigorous process of seminar, Q&A sessions, training, and exams, before being selected.

“In this activity, we are targeting the 30-45 age group who own two-wheelers or four-wheelers. Our objective is to target 150,000 people. We are targeting cities like Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi and NCR, Chennai, Jaipur, Indore, Pune and Hyderabad. We are doing this activity from August 4-14 in Delhi, while in other cities the campaign will last for nine days. We are focusing on BTL activities as we want to do the campaign in a targeted manner and build awareness and reach out to a significant audience,” explained Gupta.

He further said, “We are not competing with Indian brands in the insurance segment because we are a strong foreign brand. Our competitors are Aviva Life Insurance, Max New York Life Insurance and Met Life.”

Gupta added, “We will be releasing ING’s global campaign in India in the second week of August, which will focus on ING’s financial presence in all sectors. Ace Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso has been featured in the campaign, which was released globally in April 2008. The creative agency behind the campaign is Iris Communication. This TVC will target the 15-34 age group and will also be uploaded on various websites. We plan to come out with a new ING Vysya Life Insurance campaign in October. The creative agency for ING Vysya Life Insurance is Rediffusion DYR Bangalore, while the media duties are being handled by Starcom.”